Out to Launch
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Melissa McCarthy saves the world. KFC has dueling Colonels. Let's launch!
  • Budweiser unveiled its 60-second pro-immigrant Super Bowl ad, "Born the Hard Way," which tells the story of company co-founder Adolphus Busch and his journey to fulfill his American dream.

    Busch left Germany for America to pursue his dream of brewing beer. The trip to America wasn't easy, and Busch was hardly welcomed with open arms when he arrived on terra firma. Chants telling him to "go back home" as well as a steamboat fire, didn't deter Busch from keeping his dream alive when he settled in St. Louis.

    Here, Busch truly was welcomed with open arms. And when a stranger with the last name of Anheuser buys him a beer, well, the rest is history. Anomaly created the campaign.

  • Audi's Super Bowl ad, running in the third quarter, sends a powerful message about pay equality. "Daughter" tells the story of a father's inner thoughts as he watches his little girl compete in a downhill cart race.

    "Do I tell her that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence that she will automatically be viewed as less than every man she ever meets?" he ponders as his competitive, fierce daughter wins the race.

    Audi closes with a commitment to equal pay for equal work, because "progress is for everyone." #DriveProgress. Venables Bell & Partners created the campaign, shot by Aoife McArdle.

  • So far, only two Super Bowl ads have made me laugh out loud: Skittles and Kia Niro, which launched its full game Super Bowl ad today.

    "Hero's Journey" is a 60-second spot, running in the third quarter, starring Melissa McCarthy as an eco do-gooder. She wants to save everything. And when she gets a call, McCarthy and her Niro come running.

    Set to Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For A Hero," McCarthy's first save is whales, although a breaching one propels her into the boat she just left. She is also a tree-hugger, until the tree she's holding is chopped down. Next come the ice caps and rhinos. The ice cap splits in two and the rhino doesn't look like he needs saving.

    "It's hard to be an eco-warrior, but it's easy to drive like one," closes the ad, created by David&Goliath.

  • KFC is running a Super Bowl ad during the fourth quarter that pits two celebrity colonels against one another. In one corner, there's the Georgia Gold Colonel, played by Billy Zane; in another, the Kentucky Buckets Colonel, played by Rob Riggle.

    The 15-second ad plays off the strategy that KFC cannot have two colonels at the same time. The competitive juices start flowing. Zane introduces his Georgia Gold-flavored chicken while Riggle interrupts, looking to play football. Riggle tries to tackle Zane, but he's gold-plated, so Riggle goes down hard.

    Teaser ads, longer than the actual big game ad, show a never-ending game of rock, paper, scissors; an unfair arm wrestling match; and awkward silence between the two Colonels. Wieden + Kennedy created the campaign.

  • King's Hawaiian is making its Super Bowl ad debut in the fourth quarter with "False Cabinet." Created by the Levit Agency, the ad plays off the popularity of the brand's rolls. Once you open a bag of them, they're gone. So someone comes up with a quasi-smart way to have a stash of rolls at the ready: a false cabinet behind a normal kitchen cabinet.

    The only hiccup in this solution is, the rolls fall inside a grandfather clock in another room and this hiding space has been discovered by the young son. The spot ends by debuting a new product line of barbecue sauce launching in the spring.